San Diego Loyal player Collin Martin suffered homophobic slurs during Wednesday night’s match with Phoenix Rising FC in the USL Championship at Torero Stadium in San Diego, after which San Diego decided to walk out of the game.
San Diego Loyal midfielder Collin Martin opens up on the incident
Collin Martin, who is openly gay, has accused Junior Flemmings of Phoenix Rising FC to have made the homophobic remarks.
Collin Martin took to Twitter to release an official statement about the incident and accused the Phoenix Rising player.
Collin Martin stated that the referee sent him off because he thought that he had made the remarks towards the referee.
The midfielder later stated that the referee “got confused and thought I called him gay — hence why I was mistakenly given a red card thereafter.”
He also said, “Flemmings came over and told me that he knew of my ‘situation’ (I’m an out gay man) and that he didn’t call me a slur.”
He continued, “At this point it is clear to me he was backtracking and attempting to deny what he said. Why would he say that slur to me if he knew I was gay?”
You can check the statement below:
My statement on what happened in last nights match. The response that followed from my coaches, teammates, and the entire @SanDiegoLoyal organization was truly moving. They had my back and wanted to make a statement that we aren’t going to stand for this hate in our game. pic.twitter.com/yhTxeL2XkC
— Collin Martin (@martcw12) October 1, 2020
However, Junior Flemmings denied making the homophobic remarks. He claims the accusation to be false. He stated that he respects his opponents equally. He also added that “I stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ movement.”
San Diego Loyal backs up Collin Martin, club’s boss explains the walkover
On Wednesday’s match, San Diego Loyal were leading 3-1 but they decided to forfeit the match in order to protest against the comments towards the club’s players. The club made a Twitter post to take a stand.
We are loyal to our message, we are loyal to our players, we are loyal to our fans, and most importantly we are loyal to San Diego. #SDvPHX | #AllBlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/wXkv5O7qVr
— San Diego Loyal (@SanDiegoLoyal) October 1, 2020
Landon Donovan, San Diego Loyal gaffer also supports the player. He went on to explain the reason for forfeiting the match. He said that this nuisance will not be tolerable and they had to take a stand for this.
He explained that they have given up the hopes of making it to the play-offs. Moreover, they were beating their opponents but “there are things more important in life and we have to stick up for what we believe in. And so they made the decision to walk off.”
This is the second time the Loyal’s player had to face verbal abuse, previously being in the match against Galaxy II as Omar Ontiveros said the N-word directed towards Loyal defender, Elijah Martin.
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